BlueHorseShoe2000

At long last, Midwest will finally move its operations over to Terminal C at MCI beginning with Friday's flight schedule. Frontier already operates from Terminal C. It will now be one big, happy Republic family

http://economy.kansascity.com/?q=node/6333

I believe this is the last joint station where operations have not yet been combined.

knope2001

I believe the combined area will have four jetways and five parking positions. However if they eventually need more, there is another set of gates higher up which are available...87+, which were YX at one time.

FLYNM

KCI has what, 90 gates. Half of those I'm sure are unused. Why didn't they combine Frontier/Midwest to a terminal where they could have 20 gates if they wanted? KCI is a nice airport.

RSVP

WAS a nice airport in the 1970's, that drive up to the gate terminal theory doesn't quite work with today's security needs.

peersteve

Yeah, that was my question also..... Will all the Midwest/Frontier/Republic gates be inside the same security entrance?...... It was an unexpected hassle when making connecting flights on Southwest at Kansas City to have to go through security again to get to the next set of Southwest gates.

lougord99

No longer. All of Southwests gates are now in 1 security area.

knope2001

The key reason (so I'm told) they consolidated at the F9 gates rather than the YX gates is that F9 has Mexican flying, and customs is adjacent in that terminal.

Midwest's today has all their gates in a single security area, however during the MCI peak a couple of summers ago they sometimes put RJ's at adjacent gates in a separate area. That meant that certain connections at peak bank times needed re-screening.

I'm pretty sure the new F9/YX area is within a single security area, too. There are additional vacant gates for them to expand into someday, but those additional gates might need separate screening. The terminal design limits the number of gates which can possibly be linked in a single security area

FLYNM

I wonder if there's a way an airline, like Frontier, could secure a big chunk of one of the terminals and make it all behind security, close off a third of a terminal and have it all secured. Are they going to route Milwaukee flights thru Midwest/Frontier to Mexico thru KC? If you want to book a flight to Mexico from Milwaukee, you have to go all the way out west to Denver, a more direct routing would be thru KC.

knope2001

KCI is designed in such a way that it would be next to impossible to turn many gates into a single security area. For those who are unfamiliar, there's no real "terminal" at KCI...it's simply three narrow curved hallways. These curved hallways are a mix of gates, ticket counters, bag claims, and the like. This is a general layout (straightened out, of course).
__________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
|......Gates......| Bag Claim |....Gates......| Ticket Cntr |....Gates......| Shop |....Gates......| Ticket Cntr|....Gates......|

There's no central terminal nor place for one. So to connect multiple gate sets into a single security area you'd have to do something like turn current ticket counter and baggage claim space in gates, and current gate space into ticket counter and bag claim space. This is not an easy proposition because each function has very specific infrastructure. And the terminal is such a narrow building, there really isn't any place to build passage behind ticket counters or bag areas to link separate gate areas.

n735

Always thought Kansas City should add a check-in area on the parking ramp in the middle of the C.

Cars drop off passengers on the left (outer) curb, passengers enter small check-in, ticket counter and security building, then ride moving side walk (like a wheels spoke) to gate area. It would make one central check-in and out area.

FLYNM

I think KCI has the possibilities to have just enough improvements made for it to work. It was State of the Art 40 years ago, but read once that KC officials said it would have never been built today as is.

lebowski2222

DFW was actually modeled after KCI, if anyone has ever been there you will notice that the security is very close to all the gates and it has curved terminals. The only differences is that it's bigger and wider and they have the tram to get from terminal to terminal

FLYNM

From MCI's website, it looks like gates 80-90 could all be Frontier Midwest gates, 10 gates there would be a nice chunk for the airline(s) to utilize.

tony732

Yep...that pretty much sums it up. A few years ago, the city and some consultants started brainstorming the idea of a Central Terminal, however, I haven't heard much about it for a while. It all comes down to $$$$, and the city is having some serious financial issues right now. Sooner or later they will need to do something with that airport.

RSVP

The story mentions any changes would be 10-20 years away, that was written in 2007.